


If you're waiting for something good

by Asukan



Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU Uzuki Yuugao, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Yamato | Tenzou, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, Hatake Kakashi Has Issues, Hatake Kakashi Needs a Hug, Hatake Kakashi-centric, Hokage Hatake Kakashi, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi, Time Travel, knksummer, knksummer2020, knksummerfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukan/pseuds/Asukan
Summary: Team Ro had just finished cleaning up their sector after the Uchiha Massacre when they see something suspicious in the distance. While investigating, they get sucked into a future they had never even dreamed to imagine. War, suffering and death was normal. The world after the Fourth Shinobi War was nothing like they'd expected.And Hatake Kakashi had always stayed far away from a loud and obnoxious brat who ran around the village, crying for attention. He had failed that boy years ago and now it hurt to look at him. Kakashi was not ready to be confronted by a 19-year-old Uzumaki Naruto who smiled at him as if he was something good. Someone wanted.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Kakashi, Hatake Kakashi & Uzuki Yuugao, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Yamato | Tenzou, Hatake Kakashi/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850467
Comments: 145
Kudos: 522
Collections: KAKANARU SUMMER EVENTS





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We're getting there! This is for prompt 10 out of 11 for the event: Timetravel AU. 
> 
> This story was one of the two that I picked to focus on after the reader poll (the other one is _Let the right one in_ ). This means that I'll update a story every other or third week (since life sometimes gets in the way) and alternate what story gets updated. I will try my best to keep to a faster schedule than that, but when exams and work keep me busy I can't promise anything.

The smell of blood was everywhere. It almost covered the stench of shit and piss, a natural if unglamorous part of death. It’d never been covered at the Academy. The scent, cloyingly sweet and still fresh, penetrated through both of his masks. Of course, the bodies were starting to be piled up by now. Their empty sockets milky and their features relaxed. They had not known what was coming for them.

Kakashi wondered if Itachi had kept his Sharingan active throughout the whole thing. If each death was recorded, in perfect detail, on the retinas of a young boy. 

_-The brilliant crimson blood is staining his hands, and he rubs and rubs and his name rings in his ears as she screamed.-_

Kakashi looked to his left as Yūgao melted out of the shadows next to him and gave a quick nod in greeting. “The lone survivor has been taken to the hospital, captain.”  
  
“Good,” he said, thinking of the boy Itachi had always spoken of with such fondness. It would have been less cruel to give him a quick death. “The boy is Itachi’s younger brother, Sasuke.”  
  
“Poor kid,” Kō said from his place in a tree above them. “I suppose Itachi fancied it as mercy.”  
  
“Indeed.”  
  
“We’ve collected the corpses in our assigned sector,” said Tenzō as he landed next to them. 

“Good,” Kakashi said, “Where is Ram?”  
  
“I saw him with Danzō earlier, captain,” said Kō. “They were on a side road.”  
  
Kakashi frowned behind his mask but kept his voice emotionless. “Go after him.”

As Kō leapt away Kakashi looked around. Just in their sector, there were fifty corpses, some of them children. Their glassy eyes reflected the full moon above, like morbid stars in pallid flesh. Kakashi looked away from the face of a three-year-old girl who had sung a silly little rhyme last time he’d been by the Uchiha compound. He couldn’t remember how it went.

- _The children are ushered away as a stranger, a disgraceful outsider, walks amongst their midst. Because one glowing eye in his skull does not make him one of them, strange and a parasite. They don’t trust him.-_

“Captain?”  
  
“Let’s go to the Naka Shrine.”  
  
“Yes, sir”

As they approached the shrine they had to continue their grim task of moving bodies. There were another ten on the path. The inside was left untouched, no bodies, no blood. Not even spilt incense. Kakashi lit a candle before leaving. 

-” _Remember the dead, Kakashi, they guard over you if you honour their sacrifice. They’ll watch over you, keeping you safe._

 _“Mother too?_ _  
__  
__“Yes, her especially. Keep her close, pup, keep her near.”-_

They were doing a final sweep of the area before returning to Anbu headquarters when Kakashi caught a flash of light in the corner of his eye. It was near the walls, seemingly in a copse of trees. It would have a great view of the compound. 

“Follow me,” he said and Shunshin’d towards the light, Tenzō and Yūgao close behind.

As they landed in the clearing, the very air seemed to shimmer around them. Kakashi attempted to escape as he saw intricate patterns of ink appear on the ground beneath them, but something held him fast. He opened his Sharingan and looked around him, trying to see the entirety of the seal before it activated.  
  
“A seal?”

“What-” 

Then the world contracted, imploded and twisted all at once. He might have screamed, but he had no voice. There was no air, only pressure and vertigo. Then nothing.

When he woke up again the scent of blood was no longer thick in the air. Now he could only smell the dried blood on their armours. How long had he been out? He opened his eyes to blinding sunlight.

“Fuck, my head.” That was Yūgao.  
  
“My back!” And that was Tenzō.

Kakashi sat up, gingerly and with a hand over his ribs, and looked at his two subordinates. They both sat up, equally slowly, and groaned. “Are you both alright?”  
  
“Yes, sir.”

“What happened?”  
  
Kakashi looked around. While they were still in a forest clearing it looked different enough in the broad daylight that he wasn’t sure if they were in the same place. If nothing else, the buildings in the distance were different. The Uchiha Compound was entirely gone and in its place were unmarked buildings, showing no clan allegiance.  
  
“This isn’t Konoha,” he said. “At least not our Konoha.”

“I think it is. Look at that gnarled tree,” Tenzō said as he pointed to an old tree they had passed- had it been the night before? “It looks just the same as yesterday. But we can’t have been out for more than ten hours without someone finding us. Security would never be that lax, especially not after last night.”

“Of course you’d recognise a tree,” said Yūgao. While her porcelain mask was as inscrutable as ever, Kakashi would bet a month of surveillance missions on her smirking underneath.  
  
“Oh, haha,” Tenzō replied and gave a choked off gasp as he pressed against his side.

Kakashi looked at them both before getting up on his feet, clenching his teeth to keep himself from gasping at the fire burning through his muscles. It felt like pressing on a bruise, but everywhere. “Do any of you need immediate medical attention?”  
  
“No, captain,” Yūgao said. “I just feel like one large bruise.”  
  
Tenzō shook his head. “I’m fine. That said, us being knocked out cold until noon the next day without anyone discovering us seems suspicious.”  
  
In unison, they gathered chakra to dispel an illusion. When that did not change the fact that they sat in the middle of the day in a Konoha with buildings they did not recognise and without an Uchiha compound, they pulled out their blades. A quick slice each and the pain as well as the sight, feel and smell of running blood was all normal. Kakashi looked around with his Sharingan and saw no irregularities either.  
  
“Let’s report to the Hokage," he said. He stretched, slowly, and felt his joints and ligaments protest every motion but it eased the pain into a dull ache rather than the burning sensation of before.

“Sir, could that wait a bit longer?”

“Yes, please.”  
  
His everything agreed with that suggestion, but he knew their duty. “We should report as quickly as possible. That way we’ll also get medical attention.”  
  
“Yes, sir.”

He leapt away, knowing that they would follow. Grumbling and cursing his name for not allowing them to rest, but close behind. 

Moving from rooftop to rooftop, the pounding in his legs started to fade as he focused on other matters. Pain was just one more thing to ignore and they’d been trained to withstand torture and interrogation. Figuring out where he was mattered more than treating his injuries.

The buildings were all new, a few years at most. But the smells and the feeling he got was the same. The paths were familiar even if the houses lining them were different. So what if the rooftop was green when it’d been red yesterday? This was Konoha, at least an eerie version of it. 

He was convinced of it when he made it to the end of what should have been the Uchiha district and could turn around to look at the familiar cliffs with the Hokage Monument. He froze mid-air and the landing was rough with tense legs. The landing radiated through him, burning-white-hot, but he ignored that too. He was too shocked to do anything else.

“Captain?” Tenzō asked from a rooftop away. Then his two subordinates landed behind him and cursed quietly. 

There on the mountain face, the stony faces of Hokages past and present stared down at the village they’d sworn to serve. There had been four faces on it yesterday. Today there were six. That wasn’t the strangest part though. He knew both the Godaime and the Rokudaime. The first was Tsunade-sama, her tell-tale seal marking her forehead and the pigtails in place. What had made her return to the village? And then, next to her was-

“I can’t fucking believe it,” Yūgao said, cackling. “You? The Hokage?” 

“I’m sure Senpai would do a good job if the village needed him,” Tenzō said, voice wavering with barely contained laughter. 

Kakashi said nothing and stared up at his own face. Because it was his face. Masked as always, but with two eyes looking down at the village. He saw no Sharingan etched into the iris, but he also didn’t know if that meant anything. It could just be too complicated to carve into the rock. 

_-The blade cuts deep and he knows his eye is gone from how grime is itching against the inside of the eye socket the blood keeps falling, dripping against the inside.-_

Yūgao tilted her head and crossed her arms in front of her. “Is it an alternative reality?”

“Maybe,” Kakashi said, slowly. “Though it could also be a more advanced genjutsu then we’d ever imagined.”  
  
“A genjutsu that is applied through a seal?” Yūgao asked. “It could be possible, I guess. Seals seem to be able to do everything. Could it be anything else?”  
  
Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Time travel. I don’t know what’s more likely.”  
  
“Do you think the lack of Sharingan means anything?”  
  
“I considered it, but it might also be hard to etch,” Kakashi replied. “The scar is still there.”

“Time travel might be the most likely?” Tenzō asked, sounding hesitant. “If this is the future, either ours or another world’s one it’d give you time to become Hokage.”

“I still can’t imagine you as Hokage, captain,” Yūgao said. “No offence.”

“None taken,” he said. “The only thing we can do to find out the truth is to go and talk to the Hokage. But we need to proceed with caution. Use your cloaks.”

“Yes, sir.”

They pulled on their cloaks to cover their hair since both Kakashi and Yūgao’s hair was unique enough to work as a way to identify them. Then they leapt from rooftop to rooftop at a speed faster than most people would see. Their uniforms were designed to be nondescript and it worked in their favour. Who would pay attention to one extra Anbu team returning from a mission? 

It didn’t take long before the tower was in view. They landed on a nearby roof and melted into the shadows of an overhanging balcony.

“Do we take the door?”

“I see an open window,” Kakashi said. “I think the Hokage is in. The direct route will make more sense for us if we’re ordinary Anbu.”

He took a breath before performing the final Shunsin to land right outside the opened window.

“Report,” said his own voice from behind the high-backed chair in front of the desk.  
  
Kakashi had been prepared for it ever since he saw his own face carved in stone, despite that it was still a shock to get confirmation about the Hatake Kakashi of this place. “Team Ro returning,”

“Maa, how intriguing,” said the familiar and wrong voice. Kakashi doubted he had ever sounded so carefree. “Well, come on in then.”

He climbed into the office and looked around. Papers everywhere, six portraits of the Hokage on the wall and, by the desk, a Hatake Kakashi with two dark eyes that looked at him. It was hard to judge his age, but he looked more settled than Kakashi had ever felt. 

- _He sees his own face in the mirror, Obito’s eye spinning and crying at the sight. Pale and pained, bloody lips and grimacing teeth.-_

Kakashi stood at attention in front of the desk, Yūgao and Tenzō to his sides, and looked at the Hatake Kakashi before him. He sniffed the air and the scent was familiar, his own. Petrichor, dogs, leather, blood and weapon oil. 

The man returned the stare in silence. Then he smiled.

“Take off your hoods and masks, Hound, Cat, Tiger,” he said. “We have much to discuss, after all.”

“Yes, sir,” they chorused and did as asked. There was no surprise on the Hokage’s face, but a gasp came from the side and Kakashi glanced over to see a young man around his own age who looked a lot like Nara Shikaku. Could it be his son?

“I’m sure you understand that we have to identify you and see if you are who you seem to be,” the Hokage said. “You look to be my own Anbu team from around a decade ago. Which is not impossible. We have seen stranger things than time travel recently, after all, right Shikamaru?”  
  
“Yes, Hokage-sama,” said the man who had to be Nara Shikamaru, Shikaku’s son. The boy would have been around eight in Kakashi’s own time. He was the same age as Sensei’s son, if Kakashi remembered correctly. “Nothing seems impossible these days.”

“Another point in your favour is that you have caused no damage, nor tried to attack me,” the Hokage continued with the same easy-going tone as before. “And you trying to infiltrate Konoha with such old intel seems unlikely. My inauguration was hardly kept secret.”

He went quiet and looked at them with a strange glint to his eyes.

“Though I would be irresponsible if I just let you roam free in the village without making sure you are, indeed, Hatake Kakashi, Uzuki Yūgao and Tenzō from the past,” he continued. “Or an alternative universe, I suppose. We can figure out the details later.”  
  
“Of course,” Kakashi said. “We have nothing to hide.”

“The easiest way to determine who you are would be to compare your chakras with your supposed counterparts,” the Hokage mused. “Thankfully we have a ninja with sensor capabilities that advanced.”

He bit into his thumb and summoned Kakashi’s pack. The sight of the ninken made Kakashi relax. A contract signed in blood was a contract signed in blood. The only one who could summon his pack was himself, and if there was one thing he trusted it was the loyalty of his pack. They would never allow anyone else to summon them.

- _He can’t breathe through his tears, his heart is beating. He scrubs and scrubs to get rid of the blood until soft, soft jaws close around his wrist and tugs him away. He’s dragged to the sofa, because the bed is soaked in sweat, and multiple warm bodies press close as he lies down, covering him.-_

“What’s up, Kakashi?” said Pakkun, and the lazy drawl was a balm to Kakashi’s ears even as the pug addressed the Hokage. 

“We’ve got an interesting situation on our hands,” his alternate self said and nodded at Team Ro.

The dogs turned at once. 

“Time travel, boss?” Bisuke asked.

“Or dimension travel?” Urushi continued.

“We don’t know yet,” the older Kakashi replied. “We don’t even know if they are who they say they are.”  
  
“If it’s supposed to be a disguise it’s a piss-poor one. It should be known by now that you don’t have the Sharingan anymore, boss,” Pakkun said.

It was yet another puzzle piece suggesting time travel. Could this be him in the future? Clear eyes and straight shoulders, seemingly unburdened by ghosts that clutched at his memories.

“You’d think so,” the Rokudaime said. “It’s been years.”

Shiba huffed and sniffed the air. “They smell right. What do you want, boss?”  
  
“Shiba, fetch Tenzō. Guruko, find Yūgao for me,” their summoner answered. “We’ll need them here for comparison.” 

The two ninken were gone in a flash.

“Shikamaru, mind going to the hospital and ask Tsunade-sama to come here?”

Shikamaru frowned and shook his head. “Is it wise to leave you alone with them?”  
  
“Maa, have some faith in your Hokage, Shikamaru,” the man replied with a grin. “Go.”

The young man looked at his Hokage and appeared to want to protest once more, but he gave in with a sigh and a muttered complaint.

The Rokudaime leaned forward in his chair and glanced down to the pack of ninken still awaiting their order. “Pakkun.”  
  
“Yes, boss?”  
  
“Get Naruto, would you? The rest of you stay here.”

The pug probably left at that, but Kakashi wasn’t sure. The devastatingly familiar name echoed in his head. 

The only sound he could hear was his heart pounding in his ears as he desperately tried to make sense of it all. Why would he look so relaxed about it? As if it was right and natural for him to call on Naruto. His sensei's last-ditch effort to save them all, the Jinchūriki of the demon fox. The boy who should have been _pack_.

Kakashi stared at the Hokage. “Naruto?”

- _Bright blond hair and blue, blue eyes and features that look more like his mother. Kakashi doesn’t get close, is not allowed, doesn’t know if he’d be able to look at the boy and see him smile when Kakashi’s failed-failed-_ **_failed_ ** _him.-_

“Uzumaki Naruto, yes,” the Hokage said and smiled, but his eyes looked at him with a penetrating stare. “Yondaime’s legacy.”

Kakashi stood still, ignoring how the remaining dogs of his pack looked at him and whined when they noticed his tension. 

“I’m not-”  
  
“That order means nothing now, Kakashi,” the Hokage said. “The Sandaime is dead, his decree dead with him.”

- _”His parentage has to be kept secret, Kakashi-kun. If the Yondaime’s student is seen taking an interest in the boy, people would suspect. I cannot allow it.”-_  
  
Kakashi looked at the man who had to be himself, how else would he know?

“Does he know? I mean-”  
  
“I should mention that I was his Jōnin-sensei,” the Hokage said with a smile. “He will know you.”

Kakashi said nothing, couldn't through the pain in his chest or his throat that could make no sound, and nodded. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a bit longer than planned because a) it was tricky to write and b) I got distracted by writing smut for another story.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is a bit more introspective than the previous one. I hope you'll like it!

Hatake Kakashi, _Rokudaime Hokage_ because there existed a reality or future where _Kakashi the Friend Killer_ was entrusted with the village, was looking at him. Gloved hands clasped together under his chin, a smile crinkling the skin around two dark, bright eyes and seemingly without a care in the world. 

_-The jagged edges of bones, scratching against his arm. Yet another corpse, etched into his memory. Glassy eyes, twisted lips, bloodied teeth. A sick, twisted slurping noise as the flesh stops clinging to him._

_He wonders, as he wipes away the worst of the blood and gore, if it'd be better or worse if he could forget that it was once a human.-_

Kakashi looked back across the abyss, the chasm a _decade_ or a _universe-wide_ , that kept him from understanding. 

"Put on your masks and hoods again, please," the Rokudaime said with the same carefree tone as before. "Let's keep your identities secret for the chakra comparison."

"Yes, sir,” they said in unison and Kakashi used the cover of the mask and cloak to scan his surroundings.

The room was different from the Hokage's office he was used to. The wood was newer, the floor with fewer scuff marks. The colours were lighter. More paperwork, but the size of this Konoha could explain that. The portrait of the Six Kage looked new, frames new and more vibrant. The desk in front of him lacked the little nick from the time a stray kunai had been flung by an assassin. Everything around him looked like it was only a few years old. 

Kakashi thought back to the new buildings that stood in place of the Uchiha compound. Why was everything replaced? What had happened here?

The Hokage glanced in his direction and the knowing look in two bright eyes made Kakashi’s hackles rise. How had he lost Obito’s gift? How did he end up with a new eye? A surgery like that was complex, especially after the loss of two eyes and the subsequent reattachment of the optical nerve. What had this man done to be worthy of the effort? In his role as the Hokage, he could have ordered it, of course. If he were a man who’d waste resources on giving someone like Kakashi his eye back. 

-" _I'm about to… die… but I'll become your eye… and see the future with you."_ -

He didn’t deserve to be free of the burden. If this man was Kakashi, he should know that. He’d failed. Failed like his father before him and that was his penance. Carrying on, waking up another day, taking it all in. Trying to make sense of it all.

And now, now that the distance was getting too much and he was considering something that wasn't Anbu, the Uchiha clan was destroyed. Annihilated. Leaving him as the only one with a Sharingan, the only one besides Tenzō with any hope of containing the threat. Kakashi had killed a Jinchūriki before.

How could this smiling, happy man be Uzumaki Naruto's sensei? Was it because he’d lost the ability to be assigned the killing blow?

_-Stay away. You can’t help him. You don’t deserve to, you coward. You failed the boy as well. Another one, Hatake. Another failure. Was pack, is pack, should be pack. Just death and silent spaces left.-_

Uzumaki Naruto. 

The boy who would become, could become?, his student. His to look after, to train and to guide. Finally allowed and expected to get close.

He had seen the boy in the village. It would have been impossible not to notice him burning as brightly as he did. Loud and angry, like Kushina had been. A raging storm among trees. Even from a distance, he’d heard rumours of the boy that was a monster, a fox, a trickster. The hellion that parents warned their children about because he was dangerous, he didn’t belong, there was something off about him, it was just best to stay away, dear, come for dinner.  
  
He had seen eyes like the ocean freeze into ice.

Kakashi had known his sensei well. He had known Kushina. There was no risk the demon's chakra would leak out by accident, no way the Kyuubi would escape once more. That wasn’t why this child’s eyes had grown hard.

-" _Listen, Kakashi, my clan was stubborn, proud and wild. Like the ocean, crashing against the shore. If we wanted something, we would do it. By blood or seals. I can teach you, but you have to find your own limit yourself. We had seals to bind death itself."-_

He hadn't been scared of the boy. It would have been easier if he'd been able to blame fear. Few things made him afraid these days. No, it wasn't terror that made him unable to look into eyes like a summer sky. The truth was more damning than that. 

Years ago, a few nights after the attack he'd gone to the orphanage to look at the baby. He'd snuck inside. Any half-decent ninja could walk in whenever they pleased and slit the babe's throat.

Hatake Kakashi was many things. Cold-blooded, friend killer, scum, traitor and murderer. He was also better than decent at his job. It'd been too easy. So, so easy to get close to the most valuable child, the most precious thing in the village. 

The attic room had been cold, dusty. The cradle stood in a far corner, out of sight and out of mind. Kakashi had walked up to the restless, squirming baby and looked down. Hard to say if he had anything from his mother. Blond hair and blue eyes, like Minato. Whiskered cheeks, that made Kakashi think of Guruko. 

It had hurt to see those blue eyes and remember when Minato had smiled at him, eagerly telling Kakashi of Kushina’s pregnancy. Or thinking about the ten months Kakashi had guarded her, how she’d nag at him to come inside when it was raining. There'd been toys and stuffed animals. Frogs and dogs. Kushina had bought a fox onesie and said it'd be perfect with a grin at her husband.

_-Kushina, with her fierce grin. Loud laugh. Bloodied knuckles._

_Replaced with a soft smile in death._

_Her cold corpse, which was all wrong because she was never still, always bright and warm, was impaled through the chest._

_Like Minato._

_Like Rin.-_

Kakashi had been meant to be there for them. As a babysitter, a grudging sparring partner and something like a brother figure. A mentor, a guide. Someone trusted. He'd been on his way to the hospital to wait for the three of them when he'd felt Kyuubi's chakra. 

_-“To know what is right and choose to ignore it is the act of a coward, Kakashi. We must strive to do the right thing.”_

_“Even if it’s outside of mission parameters, sensei?”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Yes, sometimes things are more important than how quickly we finish a mission.”-_

Instead, he'd stayed away. 

He'd had nothing to offer a baby. There was nothing left of him to give and Naruto had deserved the best. If he'd lost Naruto too-

Vanishing into the shadows, surrendering himself entirely to the Anbu, had been easier. Safer. If nothing else, Kakashi doubted that there had been something left of him to give a Genin team. It could be a mask. The man in front of him might have dealt with his students in a cold, detached manner. This Naruto might just know Hatake Kakashi as his former sensei. A strange man who had never offered anything but new techniques, as detached as their old Anbu instructors, faceless and without a name behind their porcelain masks. 

The ninken around him _\- his pack even if he'd not summoned them, because he knew them, had raised them all since they were puppies-_ kept glancing at him. They'd always been good at picking up when he was tense. Ready to engage or disengage the enemy combatant. Right now he wanted to disengage and run. 

There was a knock on the door. 

Kakashi straightened his back, scrubbing his thoughts with steel and professionalism.

“Come in,” the Hokage called. 

Kakashi relaxed as he caught the familiar scents of his team and his two ninken. He stood at attention even as his mind considered the possible ramifications of either time or dimension travel. His nose did not lie. There were two Hatake Kakashis, Tenzōs and Uzuki Yūgaos in the room.

“Anbu Tiger reporting, Hokage-sama,” Yūgao’s familiar voice said in the typical manner of the Anbu.

“What now, Hokage-sama?” asked a man in Tenzō's voice in a clear breach of protocol. 

“Yūgao, Tenzō, come in. Would you like some tea?”

“Tea, Hokage-sama?” the strange man asked as he came to a stop next to the Hokage’s chair. It was an older Tenzō, dressed in the standard uniform of a Konoha Jōnin. The uniform was different from what Kakashi was used to seeing on the rank and file Chuunin and Jōnin. Sleeker, more form-fitting and slightly darker in colour. It seemed the Research department had finally figured out a way to make the flak jacket far less bulky and cumbersome.

Kakashi looked him over as he turned their way and as dark eyes widened briefly. 

The man, for he was well out of his teens around his mid-twenties, looked good. Relaxed and content as he stood next to his Hokage. 

- _Wood erupts from the ground, like wooden snakes, trying to encase him. Kakashi summons lightning to his hand, cutting through them as they aim for his chest. Trying to impale, kill. Kakashi is a master at it, it’s easy to cut through them all._

 _He lands next to a boy, so young, with angry eyes in a blank face._ -

Kakashi felt his teammates shift next to him as they took in the newcomer. Tenzō had been part of ROOT or Anbu his entire Shinobi career and most people left the ranks in a body bag. Had something happened to him to make him unfit for service? But then, he still wore a hitai-ate and a flak jacket signifying an active ninja. 

“Yes, or coffee, if you’d prefer,” the Hokage responded, holding up two different thermoses with a smile. “We’re waiting for Naruto to resolve an issue.”  
  
“Uzumaki Naruto?” a woman who sounded like Yūgao asked. “For an Anbu issue?” 

“I think you’ll find that these Anbu are very familiar, Yūgao,” the Jōnin replied. 

There was no noise at all to hint that the woman moved closer, but Kakashi could smell it. So when he saw purple hair at the corner of his right eye he wasn’t surprised. The owner of the hair was though, judging by the shifting of her shoulders as she looked at their masks.

She wore the typical Anbu gear, though without the arm guards and her mask. Suggesting she was on leave. There was something sad about her eyes, but her shoulders were relaxed. It’d been some time since her last difficult mission. Kakashi knew the signs.

Brown eyes narrowed under purple bangs. “What is the meaning of this?”   
  
“I’m suspecting time travel for now,” the Hokage said with a smile as if he was discussing how nice the weather was. “Which is why we need Naruto.”   
  
“To compare our chakras,” the older looking Tenzō said, while scanning Kakashi and his team with a brow raised in curiosity. “I was wondering why you’d involve him with Anbu. I didn’t think you’d ever consider it. Given how… _Naruto_ he is.”   
  
“Ah, you’re right,” the Hokage said. “He’s not the type to willingly join the ranks without any prompting. I don’t think he’s even thought about joining Anbu.”

The man in the jounin uniform smiled and there was a softness to it, a warmth that was unfamiliar on Tenzō’s face. "He's got other plans, after all."

The Hokage chuckled. “I look forward to them.”  
  
“Planning to go on a vacation once that happens, Hokage-sama?” Yūgao said with a barely-there smile, pouring herself some coffee. She poured a cup of tea for the older Tenzō when he glanced over. 

The Hokage nodded towards the piles of paperwork. “Well, it’d be a nice change of pace. Stretch my legs, travel a bit, take in the sights.”

“Which we did a lot,” she replied with an arched brow. “Though it was perhaps not the most relaxing time.”

“Indeed,” the Rokudaime replied. Then he turned to look at Kakashi. “Speaking of unpleasant missions, the blood on your armours tell only parts of it. What was your last mission?”

Kakashi stayed silent for a split second, considering how much to reveal, before deciding honesty would be the most convenient route forward. These people had either lived through the same events or it’d tell them they were from a different world. He breathed in and kept his face devoid of any emotion, even behind two masks it was important to follow protocol. 

“We were assigned cleanup duty at the Uchiha compound," he said. "As we had finished all sectors, I spotted a strange light in a nearby meadow near the Naka shrine. As we approached, a seal activated. We woke up in the same spot, but in another time or place mere minutes ago. We went to report to the Hokage straight away and saw six stone faces rather than four on the way here.” 

Recognition flashed in the Hokage's eyes. "The Uchiha massacre, I take it?”  
  
“Every last member of the clan dead by Uchiha Itachi’s hand,” Kakashi confirmed. “Only his brother, Sasuke, was spared.”

The older versions of themselves nodded. 

"It happened here as well," the Rokudaime said.

Yūgao shifted next to Kakashi and spoke up. "Was Uchiha Itachi brought to justice?"

"I will not comment on that until your identities are confirmed," the Hokage replied. "And probably not after either."

Kakashi nodded. "You can't know how it'll influence this time if we're you and go back with knowledge we shouldn't have."

The Hokage smiled. “Of course you would see it my way. Though I have a solution for it, I believe.”

Kakashi said nothing. The most straightforward solution would be to jail them to make sure they didn’t run around the village freely. Assigning them a guard would be a waste of resources, few ninja would be able to stop three Anbu of their calibre.

Tenzō shifted next to Kakashi, uneasy in the face of possible incarceration. After his many years spent in test tubes, Kakashi knew that his subordinate was uneasy with forced confinement. Well, more so than the average shinobi. A weakness their Anbu commander had met with the typical Shinobi solution: repeat exposure until acclimation. 

They nodded when the Hokage raised a brow in their direction. For the village, they would comply. 

“Sai,” the Hokage called out and a pale figure appeared in the window behind him. He swirled around in his chair to address the newcomer. “Send a message to our travelling friend, would you? I need him back. As soon as possible.”

“Yes, Kakashi-sensei,” the man called Sai said and pulled out a scroll. He wrote something down on it with a brush and, with a quick seal, a small bird sprung out of the scroll, taking flight.

“Thank you.”

The man smiled and bowed, vanishing as quickly as he’d appeared. A technique used by the Anbu. 

Kakashi gazed at the bird, tracking its movements. It didn’t take long before it was so high up it was indistinguishable from a real one, then it flew higher and higher until it was out of sight. 

“One of your students, Hokage-sama?" Yūgao asked with a curious lilt to her voice. "He seems like a longtime agent."

"He was a part of my team when he was already in Anbu," the Rokudaime replied. "A replacement was needed at the same time as I was out of commission as the team leader. Which is when my cute kōhai took over as the team captain. Isn’t that right, _Yamato-taichō_?”

The man who was, apparently, both Tenzō and Yamato rolled his eyes. “Yes, and you didn’t give me any warning, senpai.”

The Hokage cocked his head before smiling widely with closed eyes. “What could I possibly have said to prepare anyone for my cute little students?” 

The man opened his mouth to reply, but then shut it with a wince. “You have a point.”

A ripple ran through the room and as the ninken looked as one towards the door with wagging tails. "Speaking of warning, boss, Naruto’s here."

Kakashi braced himself and took a deep breath. _Naruto_. 

The older ninjas looked at the door as well, just in time for a knock to be heard.

“Come in,” the Rokudaime said, glancing at Kakashi as he did so.

The door swung open behind them once more. 

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei!" A loud, boisterous voice called and it reminded Kakashi of Kushina laughing at him as he sat in a tree outside her window, luring him in with a promise of his favourite food. 

_-"Come on, brat, get yourself some warm food in you,” Kushina calls from where she was sticking her head out of the window. The setting sun illuminates her hair and it shines like embers. “It’s getting colder!”_

_He sniffs the air and the delicious scent of broiled saury tickles his nose. “I’m meant to guard you.”_

_“You can guard me better from inside,” she says, patting the windowsill with a knowing grin. “I’ve made your favourites.”_

A warm, pleasant aroma forced itself into the room. Like citrus and summer rain. On top of it was the telltale smell of pork and miso ramen. Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Apparently Naruto had inherited his parents’ taste in food.

“Welcome back from your mission, Naruto,” the Rokudaime said, leaning forward to rest his chin on clasped hands and looking over their shoulders. “Did it go well?”

“Of course, it was just getting paid to talk with _Gaara_ , oh, speaking of, he wanted me to give you this, sensei,” the voice behind them continued in a merry stream of words as the owner of it walked forward. “Apparently you discussed poetry or something during the last Kage summit?” 

A parcel was tossed through the air and the Hokage caught it, opening it up in a second. 

“I’ll be sure to send the Kazekage a letter of thanks,” the Rokudaime said, sounding genuinely pleased as he looked at the cover.   
  
“And Yamato-taichō, hey! Great, this saves me from chasing after you later. I got something about architecture in the Land of Wind for you-” a scroll flew through the air, this time the Jōnin caught it with a quick _thank you, Naruto_ “- since Temari-neechan recommended that book. She said you'd talked about old houses and stuff when she was last in Konoha."

The man called Yamato huffed out a laugh and nodded, looking over Kakashi’s shoulder at where Naruto stood with a warm smile. "Yes, we did. Thank you, Naruto.”

Tenzō breathed out, a small and shaky sound, almost covered by the wagging tails of eight dogs and the low chuckle from the older Yūgao. But Kakashi heard it, close as he was. He turned his head and glanced down at Tenzō’s trembling hand.

“Great! Now that I gave you the gifts,” Naruto carried on, coming to a stop next to Yūgao. Kakashi could catch a glimpse of orange pants when he turned his head. “Sensei, what’s going on? Why is the entire pack here? Though hey guys, it’s been a while. Hope you’re well!”

The ninken grinned at that and nodded, tails wagging. Bull lumbered forward and settled next to an orange-clad leg, leaning against the man and huffing, pleased, when it resulted in a pat to his big head.  
  
“And all these Anbu. It's not like you need the extra security," Naruto continued and Kakashi blinked as he saw the older Hatake Kakashi give an indulgent smile at his, their?, former student. “Do you have another mission for me?"

“Maa, in a way,” the man replied, twirling his chair slightly to the side. 

It seemed Naruto took that as an invitation because Kakashi saw a grown man of gold, orange and _warmth_ walk around the desk.

The contrast between the angry little boy Kakashi remembered from just a few months ago and this man was startling. An open, smiling face and kind eyes. Pakkun was nestled on top of a head of spiky blond hair, looking supremely comfortable and as if he’d sat on top of Naruto’s head countless times before. It was strange to see the pug that close to anyone not Kakashi himself. 

The young man came to a rest next to his Hokage, his former sensei who he grinned down at with almost familiar blue eyes looking _fond_ and _pleased_ . It was a strange way for anyone to look at Hatake Kakashi.   
  
He’d gotten used to Gai’s exuberant joy and loud challenges, his teammates look of relief when he returned to give them orders and his Hokage’s look of pride at the next report.

It had been years since anyone looked at Kakashi like that.

Other than his hair and eye colour, he didn’t look that much like Kakashi’s old sensei. His eyes were larger than Minato’s had been, and the nose rounded, the jaw more square. Kushina’s features were there in the cheeks and the shape of his face. 

It was easier to look at him and not see the dead stare back.

“These specific Anbu are why I called for you, Naruto,” the Hokage said with a sweeping gesture. “And Yamato and Yūgao.”

Naruto looked over them all with a curious look, taking in the dried blood on their uniforms. Kakashi shifted in place, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. 

The look quickly melted into a friendly grin, whiskered cheeks scrunching up like a content cat. “Hello there! Nice to meet you. I’m Uzumaki Naruto!”

They nodded back.

Naruto didn’t seem to mind the silence. Instead, he turned to his sensei again with a raised brow. “What did you want me to do, sensei?”  
  
“I need you to look into their chakra signatures, Naruto,” the Rokudaime said. “Using whatever mode is more convenient.”   
  
“That’s easy enough!” Naruto said and reached up to pluck Pakkun off his head. The pug was deposited on top of the Hokage’s desk with a final scratch behind floppy ears. “Since you look exhausted, I might as well give you some juice.”

And with those words the very air erupted, the warmest chakra Kakashi had ever felt rushing against them with Naruto in the epicentre. He was covered in bright golden flames, flickering and dancing before solidifying around him, covering him in gold and black, illuminating the room. It felt like standing in the middle of the ocean, churning and singing around them.

Naruto gasped and bright gold eyes looked at him, through him, as if they saw _everything_. “Kakashi-sensei?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little delayed compared to the promised update schedule since I felt the need to write something Naruto focused in the mix. Basically, the focus will definitely be this and Let the right one in (I've already started plotting Ch9 in that story), but I might toss in one chapter from one of the others once I've posted for these two. Meaning that the update schedule will be:
> 
> If you're waiting for something good (today), Let the right one in, (maybe some other story), If you're waiting for something good, Let the right one in, (maybe some other story). And so on. 
> 
> I hope that makes sense to people. It's just since both of the two ones people voted for are Kakashi-centered, it's nice to swap PoV sometimes.

Gold and warmth. Like a sun he could reach out and touch. Swirling and dancing around them. 

Chakra sang as the wind settled and papers settled back into place with a rustle. It was everywhere. Flames licked his skin and he knew the chakra, as through a fog.

- _There’s a thick, cloying sense of threat-danger-death in the air. A shiver runs down Kakashi’s spine. He knows in the very marrow of his bones that something is wrong. There is a fight, somewhere, and he bares his teeth under his mask because he cannot lose more people._

 _Then he hears the roar. The ground shakes and his hearing goes, the sound an oppressive force. Then he sees it. Tails lashing the air, creating chaos and destruction as they fall._ _  
_ _  
_ _Red slitted eyes burn with hatred over snarling teeth._

 _He wants to scream._ -

Kakashi stared at slitted eyes and a fanged smile as the pieces started to fall into place. This power was not mortal and yet it had been Naruto calling his name. A human voice, not the earth-shattering roar of the demon of nightmares. Despite this fact, there was only one thing that could explain the sheer power in front of him.

Kakashi had felt that power before. When it lashed the air years ago.

_-Once the barrier falls Kakashi runs through crumpled buildings and bodies. It's all washed red in the eerie shine of his borrowed-taken-stolen Sharingan. He ignores the squelch of sandals against the ground. Sticky despite no rain for days._

_You cannot be too late. Not again. Not this time.-_

He closed his normal eye and opened Obito's, watching as the world bled red. The chakra twisted and turned inside the man in front of him. A seemingly infinite amount of blood-red power surrounding a core or bright and warm yellow.

_-He stops when he sees a small figure of white and red. It’s collapsed on the ground next to a small altar. Moonshine and flickering candles reflect in light hair and a coat that’s glistening red._

_The clearing is silent. It is the devastating lack of cries from the small altar that forces him forward._

_Minato is smiling. The kind blue eyes are empty and lifeless and this couldn’t be happening._

_He closes Minato’s eyes with a prayer.-_

The chakra is bright and warm. Like Kushina's when she had shown him her chakra chains. They'd wrapped around a nearby tree, tall and reaching for the blue, blue sky. He'd reached out to touch them, feeling his chakra resonate and rush to his hands to protect him. 

With a wild grin, she'd _twisted_ and the tree had cracked and crumbled into splinters and dust.

_-Naruto and Kushina are nowhere to be found. Bloodstains are leading away from the sealing altar. Kakashi is a tracker before all else._

_He follows the trail. Teeth bared in a silent growl, body trembling with rage.-_

There is a tremor in the air, a hint at threat. Kakashi looks up at the Hokage and sees the mask twist in a frown before the older man shook his head. A quick flash of hands signed _protect_ , _do not engage_. Yamato added _safe_ , _asset_ , _comrade._

_-He finds Kushina dead and the baby Naruto in Sandaime’s arms. “I promised Kushina I would look after the child, Kakashi-kun. He will be cared for."_

_"But not by you," is unsaid, hanging in the cloying air._

_Kakashi looks up, startled._

_The Hokage looks at him with an empty face, revealing nothing, and Kakashi knows that this is the last piece being taken from him._

_Ice howls in his chest as Anbu Hound kneels.-_

The chakra pulled back like a startled animal. Leaving the air feeling cold.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said again, in a shaky voice as golden eyes widened. There was no hint of a growl in that voice, despite wicked fangs. Then he glanced over to Tenzō with shoulders hunched and sharp teeth bared in a wince. "Yamato-taichō?"

Kakashi breathed in through his nose, then out. Even through two layers of masks, he could detect a hint of fear, but more than that he smelled miso, his pack and ink. Kakashi's ninken were still keeping guard with wagging tails. They were calm, even as the air danced.

He didn't know that to do. In the corner of his eye, he saw Tenzō nod. On his side, Yūgao held herself ready to draw her blade at any moment. Kakashi relaxed his stance and forced himself to calm. He’d been given an order by the Hokage. The fact that it wasn’t the Hokage he had sworn fealty to mattered little. 

_-“I need you in Anbu still, Kakashi,” the Hokage said, holding a restless Naruto in his arms. There was still blood and tears on the babe. Kakashi could smell it. “As for young Naruto, he cannot know. I will tell him when I deem him ready. Understood?”_

_Naruto. The name Minato had gushed about a few months back. He’d told him about the book by Jiraiya-sama and how it was what Kushina and he hoped for in a child. His eyes had been shining. Kakashi had sighed and rolled his eyes but bought a copy of Tales of a Gutsy Ninja the day after._

_Kakashi said nothing and bowed his head.-_

The smell of fear abated and the glowing figure of Naruto turned around to look at his Hokage. "Sensei, why are there two versions of all of you?" 

The older man relaxed at that. “The chakras are the same?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not the same, no, but from the same people."

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Yamato asked. “What’s the difference?”

"People's chakra change over time, y'know?" Naruto said with a shrug of broad shoulders. "You've all got more now. Stronger as well. And the feeling of these other ones are... _different_. But they belong to you all. That's super obvious. I just didn't realise that..."

The Hokage hummed thoughtfully and tilted his head to the side. "Didn't realise what?"

There was a slight shuffling noise as Naruto shifted his weight. "Eh, that you'd, I mean… You’ve changed."

Kakashi smiled beneath the safety of his hood and two layers of masks. That much had been apparent to him from observing the Hokage for a few seconds. 

The man in question chuckled and glanced over at Kakashi with a smirk under his mask. "Yes, that's clear enough.”

Kakashi shifted in place, feeling as if he was found wanting.

The Hokage leaned back in his chair with a smile crinkling the still unlined skin around dark eyes. "As I thought. We suspected time travel or something similar.”

Naruto glanced back at Kakashi and his team with furrowed brows. Then whiskered marks curled up in a smile as he relaxed. "Time travel, huh? I feel like I should be more surprised than I am. It's not strange at this point, y'know? What happened?”

"There was a flare-up of foreign chakra in the eastern sector around thirty minutes ago," the older Yūgao said, sipping on her coffee. "An Anbu team went to investigate and was surprised to discover two out of three Anbu agents using masks not assigned to anyone currently in active service. That being Anbu Hound, last given to Hatake Kakashi and Anbu Cat, last given to Tenzō, now Yamato."

Naruto scratched at his neck. "Why are the masks relevant?"

"The Anbu is superstitious by tradition," the Hokage replied with a shrug. "While a member lives, be it former or current, their mask and codename will be off-limits in the ranks. It's considered tempting the Shinigami to have two of the same name and style of mask. So until I die, there will be no Hound. Or Cat while Yamato's still alive."

Golden hair bobbed in a decisive nod. "So not for at least fifty years then. Alright, I get it. Is that how you knew there were copies?"

Kakashi saw Yūgao the elder stifling a laugh at the absolute certainty regarding that half a century. Her fingers flashed in _bodyguard_ , _Hokage_ , _Captain_ and _inquisitive._ The man called Yamato smirked and spelt out _Naruto_ letter by letter.

The Hokage elected to say nothing and rolled his eyes at his subordinates before looking at his former student. "That and the fact that they showed up looking like we once did and reported in as Team Ro. We use unique callsigns per unit, you see. And of course, I recognised my own voice and scent."

"Team Ro?"

Yamato slipped on his tea before answering. "The team senpai lead until about ten years ago. We had six members. The missing ones would be Ram, Boar and Weasel."

Kakashi nodded at that. “Yōji, Kō and Itachi were not present at the point the seal activated.”

The Hokage rubbed his chin with a considering hum. “It makes sense, given the timing. Itachi left the village after the massacre-”  
  
He looked at Kakashi and gave a short nod. Kakashi bowed his head and continued in unison with the other man: “-and I sent Kō to investigate Yōji’s activities with Danzō before we continued to the Naka Shrine.” 

Naruto gasped before turning around and looking at Kakashi's team again. The golden and slitted eyes looked less alarming the second time, especially when they were wide-blown in wonder. "You share the same past?"

"The only thing we know for sure is that their identities match. And that the details of their last mission match up with my final one as you just saw," the Hokage replied and looked straight at Kakashi. 

He stared back, stunned. His last mission? No more mind-numbing danger at the edge of death that made each day fade into a sluggish fog that was easier to survive? 

“Your last?” Kakashi asked before his mind had time to catch up. “I have no intention to retire from Anbu.”

“I had no choice,” the Hokage replied and poured himself some tea. “I was honourably discharged from the Anbu at Sandaime's order.”

“I see,” Kakashi said and glanced over at Naruto who’d walked up to the Hokage’s desk next to Yamato and leaned against it. He could not have been given Naruto’s team instantly, because the boy was only eight and not ready to graduate. What had happened to Hatake Kakashi in the years between Anbu and becoming a sensei?

Tenzō and Yūgao tensed next to him. Their older counterparts smiled at them and the woman signed _promotion_ , _sensei, failures, years, acceptable, teamwork, demons_. 

The Hokage set down his now empty cup and gave him a wan smile after glancing at the signs. Then he turned to look at his former student with a smile. 

“We can’t know for sure that they are time travellers given that we don’t know the function of the seal that took them here,” he said in a calm, clear voice. Kakashi blinked and wondered if it would be the voice he used around his students. “And we would never have the time to compare our pasts in enough detail to be sure. Maybe this Kakashi got his promotion to jounin three days later than I did. Or events in their childhoods were just a bit different to what we experienced. We can only know by studying the seal. And even that will yield limited results in time depending on how intricate it was."  
  
“Ah,” Kakashi said. “You mean we could have travelled to the future of another reality?”

The Rokudaime nodded. “It’s a possibility. How can we know for sure, after all?”  
  
“I managed to analyse the seal with my Sharingan before it sent us,” Kakashi replied. “I should be able to draw it again. At least most of it.”  
  
“That would be helpful. We’ll go by T&I later for a large room for you to draw it in. I suspect the seal was large enough for a normal scroll to be insufficient,” the other man replied and Kakashi nodded in agreement. “For now, feel free to remove your hoods and masks. Naruto’s proven what we already suspected.”

“Yes, sir,” they chorused. Kakashi elected to take off his cloak entirely and seal it away. Then he took off his Hound mask and slipped it onto the small hook by his waist. 

Naruto stared at them with rapt attention, blue eyes flickering between all three of them before settling on Kakashi. 

"Naruto?" The Hokage asked with a smirk as the glowing man stood still. “Are you there?”

The young man startled and turned around, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, sensei! It was just weird to see you all my age or younger."

Yamato drained the rest of his tea before laughing. “We didn’t spring fully formed, you know?”

The Hokage glanced out of the window behind him before looking back at his student. “Well then, now that we’ve established that they are, probably, Hatake Kakashi, Uzuki Yūgao and Tenzō from the past. Why don't you lend them some chakra after their mission while we wait for Tsunade-sama to show up? I sent Shikamaru for her to discuss the best way forward."

“Alright!” Naruto exclaimed before turning around with a radiant smile. “I’ll have to touch you to share my chakra, is that alright?”  
  
They nodded and held out their hands. The sensation of Naruto’s encompassing chakra reaching out for them again was like walking up to a campfire after hours in the icy cold. Kakashi looked at the intricate patterns of black across the gold and wondered what it would feel like to touch that shimmering cloak. His fingers twitched, but he stayed still.  
  
Then he got his answer. With a quick tap of nimble fingers, warmth and the calm rush of what felt like his own chakra bounded through him, lightning up his every nerve with a tinkling whisper.  
  
He heard Yūgao and Tenzō gasp next to him, but it was far away as his heart beat faster at the rush of adrenaline. It was like waking up from a dream. The drain from his Sharingan faded into nothing as he was given more chakra than he’d ever had before. It made his body sing and his mind felt clearer than ever. 

“Oh, I might have given you all the amount you have these days,” Naruto said with a grin, large enough to close his eyes and scrunch up his cheeks. It made Kakashi think of stumbling across Goruko napping in the sun. “It’ll be fine! You won’t do anything weird with too much chakra or anything.”

The luminous shroud faded with a whisper and the only gold that remained was the short and spiky hair. It was still messy from Pakkun's paws and that fact seemed oddly human after such an otherworldly display. 

The bright eyes were back to being that startling shade of blue as Naruto chuckled and clapped his hands together. “Well, that’s it, sensei. Did you need me for anything else?”

The Hokage leaned back in his chair. “Unfortunately, I might still need you. We’ll see once my predecessor and assistant gets here. It shouldn’t take long. I thought I heard Tsunade-sama earlier.”

Naruto sighed and walked over to sit down next to Bull with a pat and a hushed whisper. “Mind if I lean against you, Bull? Kakashi-sensei doesn’t have enough chairs in here.”

Bull’s stubby tail wagged once and Naruto sat down, back curving over Bull’s flank. “Thanks!”

Kakashi didn’t know how to feel about the casual way his pack treated Naruto. The steady gaze from the Hokage revealed nothing, so Kakashi thought it best to stay silent. 

“Hokage-sama?” Yūgao asked next to Kakashi. 

The man looked up at her with a small nod. “Yes, Yūgao?” 

“What are the things you’ve seen that are stranger than time travel?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the man replied with a wry look. “And a lot of it will be viewed as classified for now. Though I guess I could tell you that my old students went to the surface on the moon for a recent mission. That one was mildly interesting.”  
  
Naruto tilted his head back to glare up at his leader. “Oi! That one went fine, sensei!”

A grey brow arched in silence. 

“It did!”

“You were almost too late back, Naruto,” Yamato said with a shake of his head. “You shouldn’t take after Kakashi-senpai’s vices.”

Naruto huffed and put his hands behind his head with a cocky grin. “Anyway, I thought imitation was the highest form of flattery? So I’m just doing what sensei taught us.”

The Hokage glanced down at his former student with a curious look. “Want to flatter me, Naruto?”

Blue eyes glared up at their leader. “Oh, shut up.”

Tenzō shifted his weight before coughing into his hand. “Excuse me, Hokage-sama?”

“Yes, Tenzō?”

“Am I still in the Anbu?”

“Yes,” his older version replied. “I take fewer missions these days, but I am still in the Anbu as team captain when needed.”  
  
“Oh,” Tenzō replied, nodding slightly as his shoulders relaxed. “That makes sense.”

Kakashi looked at his subordinate and saw the proud glint in his eyes.

 _-"Welcome to Anbu, Tenzō,” Kakashi says and clasps slim shoulder. Fuck, the boy is younger than even Kakashi was when he entered the ranks. Of course, the Sandaime couldn’t let him be normal for a few years before bringing him into the ranks._ _  
_ _  
_ _Well, Kakashi would have to make sure that the young boy who hadn’t killed him just yet would feel right at home.-_

Bisuke raised his head with a sniff before his tail started wagging. “Boss, they’re here.”

“Thank you, Bisuke,” the Hokage said and glanced over to the door. “Come in!”

The door swung open as Shikamaru walked in. And then there stood Konoha’s slug princess herself, Tsunade. Kakashi hadn’t seen her for years now, but she looked the same as ever. It was both comforting and deeply surreal to see the same face as he’d said his goodbyes to after she looked over his Sharingan as now in the future next to his older self. Her seal was as strong as ever then.

 _\- ”Rin healed it well, brat,” the familiar voice was far softer than normal, more like the glow of her hands than the steel of her heart. “I detect no anomalies besides the drain for being unable to turn it off. You’ll be able to use most of its function, I believe. Just be careful.”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“I’m always careful, Tsunade-sama.”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Only when it comes to others, Kakashi.”-_

Honey eyes scanned the room before settling on Kakashi with a twist of her mouth. “Two of you, brat?”

“Maa, you’re hurting my feelings,” the Hokage replied and poured the newcomers a cup of tea each. 

“Well, at least it’s not a young Naruto,” the woman said and ignored the ignorant squawk from the man on the floor as she strode up to the desk to accept the tea. “Alright then, what’s happened?”

“Time travel or dimension travel,” the Hokage replied. “Naruto’s already confirmed they are us from _a_ past. The chakra are from the same people, but they also feel different enough to suggest more than a decade’s difference. This would be complicated to copy. And their last mission was clean up after the Uchiha massacre, it happened as it did for my team. The difference is that when we went to the Naka shrine, nothing brought us somewhere else.”

The Godaime nodded with a hum and glanced over the rim of her cup at Kakashi’s team with a thoughtful look. “Alright. You want to discuss what to do with them while they’re here?”

“Exactly, Tsunade-sama,” the Rokudaime replied with a smile. “We can keep them in solitary confinement, let them move freely or-”

“- assign guards to them.”

“My thoughts as well.”  
  
“Don’t we need more proof, Godaime-sama? Rokudaime-sama?” Shikamaru asked with a frown. “Before we let them walk around however they want?”  
  
“Knowing Team Ro, they are aware of how learning about the future can change it once they go back. It is impossible to know that them going back to save one life, won’t doom another thousand.”

Kakashi nodded. As did the other members of his team. They knew better than to believe that everything would ever go as you wanted it to. Or even planned it. Sometimes they were happy if one mission parameter proved useful once they arrived at their mark.  
  
“This looks like a peaceful time, Tsunade-sama,” Yūgao said with a bow of her head. “We would not want to disturb such a promising future.” 

“What if they learn something by accident?” Shikamaru asked with a frown. “It’s incredibly risky.”

“Have some faith in your Hokage!” the woman barked out a laugh. “I’m sure Kakashi’s already planned for any knowledge they gain to mean nothing once they return to their own time. Right, brat?”

Grey hair bobbed in a nod. “Sai has already sent the message.”  
  
“Excellent! Well, I think this was an interesting break from my duties in the hospital. You don’t need any healing?”  
  
“The blood is not ours, Tsunade-sama,” Kakashi replied with a bow.

“That’s what I like to hear. Well then, as for guards. Who knows them better than themselves?”  
  
“We can’t risk the Hokage by having him guard a possible dangerous element in the village," Shikamaru protested. "What if the seal had another component that we’re not aware of yet? They could be who they say they are, but have been given an order to kill their future selves. We can’t know.”

Tsunade smirked. “So who to add to guard against such a serious potential threat to the Hokage? Especially if we can’t trust two of our most experienced Anbu agents and the Hokage himself to keep him alive.”  
  
Everyone by the desk looked down to where Naruto was stroking a bandaged hand over Goruko’s back. Kakashi followed the looks and saw the man sit cross-legged with his pack having shifted closer than before. 

Was he going to be guarded by Naruto? The boy he’d spent years avoiding, now in charge of keeping him from assassinating himself. Some divine force must be laughing at him.

“Naruto is our most valuable military asset-” Shikamaru started saying before Naruto broke out laughing.

“They won’t try anything!” he said with a wide grin. Kakashi frowned at the easy confidence in the man’s voice. As if it was absolutely certain. “Besides, if they do, do you really think I’d let them?”

“Where will they stay then?” Shikamaru asked with a sigh. “In Naruto’s apartment?”  
  
Naruto got up with a final stroke to Goruko’s silky ear and shrugged. “It’d be a bit crowded with four people, but it’d work?”  
  
Tsunade glanced over to the Rokudaime with a smirk. “Why not the Hokage mansion? There’d be enough room.”

Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose. “So we’re placing them in the same building as the Hokage?”  
  
Tsunade shrugged. “There are plenty of guestrooms for visiting dignitaries. It’s not as if they’ll need to bunk in the same room.” 

Naruto rubbed at his chin with a frown. “Harder for me to guard them that way.”  
  
“You’d get a room too, Naruto,” the Hokage said with a laugh. “The mansion is more than large enough. The guest rooms are on a different floor than my bedroom even. An old tradition from less peaceful times.”

The younger man froze before his cheeks flushed a fetching shade of pink. “Oh, that works. So I just need to pack some clothes for a few days then? How long will it be?”  
  
“Hard to say, but it’s not like it matters that much. You won’t leave Konoha, after all.” The Hokage said with his eyes closed in a wide grin. “And Yamato, Yūgao, if you wish to come by to talk to your younger counterparts, feel free. I know you’re both off duty for a few days.”

“Yes, sir,” Yūgao said as Yamato nodded. 

Naruto looked excited as he glanced between all four of his future housemates. “Oh, this will be fun, like a sleepover!”

Kakashi felt a shiver down his spine at the expectant look. His teammates tensed up next to him as well. As Anbu they valued privacy. Time spent away from the crowded barracks. Peace and quiet to meditate and forget the horrors of their latest mission.  
  
“I’ll bring the nail polish,” the Hokage replied in a lazy drawl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now all the set-up is done and we can get to the fun conversations and moments between the characters!


End file.
